Showing posts with label cemetery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cemetery. Show all posts
24.5.15
6.6.11
Newcastle Cemetery
The old Newcastle(Washington) Cemetery contains mostly the graves of the families of miners who toiled in the surrounding hills at the end of the 19th century. The mining and logging towns closed down after a mere 50 years or so and this secluded spot overlooking tiny Lake Boren became overgrown with ivy, blackberry, and shrubbery while the fir trees grew ever taller. As is usual, the gates were unlocked for Memorial Day. The Newcastle Weed Warriors have done a great job clearing the undergrowth and sniffing out the hidden graves.
Death did to me short warning give
Therefore be carefull how you live
Prepare in time do not delay
For I was quickly called away
 |
Therefore be carefull how you live
Prepare in time do not delay
For I was quickly called away
23.5.11
Sepia Saturday: Memorial Day
Next weekend is Memorial Day in the U.S.
My mom's older brother Mort (Arthur Mordecai), always a bit of an outsider, disappeared from our radar in the late 1980s after the death of their mother. We knew only that he and his wife had moved relatively near us, to Tacoma, from Los Angeles. He never got in touch.
Last year I discovered on the Web that he had died just a few months earlier. I visited the Tacoma newspaper offices and found out the obituary had been supplied by a rest home. I contacted that establishment and left my number so that they could forward it to his surviving stepson Steve.
He called me back and let me know that Mort's ashes had been interred at the local military cemetery. He had served in WWII at Guadalcanal (a traumatic experience that did not help his mental state any). Steve said that he'd tried to get Mort to contact his sister but he simply wasn't interested. Very sad.
At any rate last weekend I found my way to the cemetery, which is nestled in the countryside, and located his marker. It's the lower right-most one.
Adjacent to it, hundreds of empty plaques ominously await the names of future military casualties and veterans.
My mom's older brother Mort (Arthur Mordecai), always a bit of an outsider, disappeared from our radar in the late 1980s after the death of their mother. We knew only that he and his wife had moved relatively near us, to Tacoma, from Los Angeles. He never got in touch.
Last year I discovered on the Web that he had died just a few months earlier. I visited the Tacoma newspaper offices and found out the obituary had been supplied by a rest home. I contacted that establishment and left my number so that they could forward it to his surviving stepson Steve.
He called me back and let me know that Mort's ashes had been interred at the local military cemetery. He had served in WWII at Guadalcanal (a traumatic experience that did not help his mental state any). Steve said that he'd tried to get Mort to contact his sister but he simply wasn't interested. Very sad.
At any rate last weekend I found my way to the cemetery, which is nestled in the countryside, and located his marker. It's the lower right-most one.
Adjacent to it, hundreds of empty plaques ominously await the names of future military casualties and veterans.
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